


Five times Cap had to ask about Hawkeye, and that one time he didn't have to. (aka How to hide a Hawkeye; a guide by Natasha Romanov.)

by xxxSunandStarsxxx



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: domestic fic, five thing fic, fluff and friendship, steve&Nat friendship, surprise domesticity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-17
Packaged: 2018-01-25 11:46:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1647518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxxSunandStarsxxx/pseuds/xxxSunandStarsxxx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To say Clint and Natasha work well together would be the understatement of the century. They work as one, their movements an extension of one another, their instincts linked through some kind of telepathic bond. S.H.I.E.L.D has no other team like them in the field. Which is why Steve can’t quite understand why he’s been partnered with Natasha and Clint is nowhere to be found.</p><p>(AKA how I'm choosing to explain the absence of Clint Barton from CA:WS and no one will ever change my mind about this.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five times Cap had to ask about Hawkeye, and that one time he didn't have to. (aka How to hide a Hawkeye; a guide by Natasha Romanov.)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello.  
> So after a very, very long break from writing fic 've decided to spend summer writing absolutely nothing that will benefit my Uni learning. Yay. Well here's my first piece so i hope it isn't too terrible and at least some people enjoy it.  
> Thank you for reading and any feedback would be lovely.  
> (Also thank you to my two lovely friends for betaing)

To say Clint and Natasha work well together would be the understatement of the century. They work as one, their movements an extension of one another, their instincts linked through some kind of telepathic bond. S.H.I.E.L.D has no other team like them in the field. Which is why Steve can’t quite understand why he’s been partnered with Natasha and Clint is nowhere to be found.

 

                                                                                                                               *

 

The first time he asks her about it she just gives him the _Look_ and he knows better than to push the subject. They haven’t been working together for long and if he’s honest she’s pretty much the only friend he has these days. That thought depresses him no end. It gets worse when he realises his only friend is being paid to be just that. She watches him carefully from her seat across the room and his face must do something weird because she stops her staring and fixes her eyes on the TV instead. Nothing more gets said on the subject. He worries for the rest of the evening that he’s offended her somehow by asking or, God forbid, something happened to Barton and he just doesn’t have the clearance to know. When she gets up to leave his tiny little S.H.I.E.L.D apartment he frowns a little when he realises it’s only nine thirty. Of course she notices.

“Sorry Cap. Places to be, people to see. You know the routine.”

“No. No of course, I apologise. Have a nice night Natasha.” He moves to open the door and checks the hallway outside before he steps away so she can leave. She touches his arm as she passes and gives him the barest hint of a smile, as close as she ever gets at least, so he knows she isn’t too mad at his prying.

                                                                                

                                                                                                                                  *

 

The second time he asks they’re stood in Fury’s office as he gives them their mission brief. It’s not as if he thinks himself and Black Widow can’t achieve their objectives, he knows they’re more than capable, he just thinks a mission like this one requires a sharper pair of eyes than the agent they’ve assigned to them has. He waits until Fury asks for any questions before he raises the issue.

“He’s unavailable.”

In all fairness Steve expected his request to be shot down, he just didn’t expect Natasha to be the one doing the shooting, and by the look on Fury’s face, neither did he.

“With all due respect Natasha, we need him. He’s the best pair of eyes we have. We’d have been dead in New York without him.”

 “Cap, he’s busy with something right now. He can’t.”

“Is he on assignment?”

Natasha’s eyes flicker ever so slightly as she repositions herself in a more defensive stance. It’s subconscious, he knows that, but it still hurts Steve a little that she feels cornered enough to do it.

“Not exactly.”

“Then why can’t he help? I know you’d feel better with him watching our six so what’s the problem?” He turns to Fury. “Sir, please you have to see reason?”

Fury watches them both for a moment before shaking his head.

“I’m sorry Captain Rogers but this is Agent Romanov’s call.”

He snaps. Just a little. He storms from the room muttering about teamwork and trust and stupid government agencies with their stupid government secrets.

The mission that night is awkward and he barely speaks to Widow unless absolutely necessary, but they get the job done and no one dies, and when they get back to DC they don’t talk about the argument but they do eat donuts and drink coffee and Steve remembers how nice it is to have a friend.

 

                                                                                                                                      *

 

He wasn’t planning on asking a third time, not after the way the first two times had gone. But her phone had rang whilst they were sparring in the gym and she’d run to answer it like it was the most important call in the world. At first he’d thought it was a work thing but the way she smiled when she’d answered the phone suggested not. He watched her wander round the gym with the phone pressed to her ear for at least fifteen minutes before he started to feel awkward. The soft smile on her face is such a contrast to her normal demeanour that he feels he’s interrupting something he shouldn’t be. He’s all but decided to leave the gym and head to the showers when she stalks back over and flips him back on to the mat.

“Honestly old man, this is getting too easy. Had enough already?” She smiles at him as she delicately steps back so he can sit up. It’s not the same smile, this one is teasing with just a hint of affection and it’s enough to make him feel a little less alone in the 21st century.

“I’m in my 90’s what do you expect?” He reaches out asking for a hand up, fully intending to flip her when she helps him. She just raises the eyebrow and smirks.

“Really Cap? I think that may have been the lamest attempt at trickery I’ve ever seen. I can’t even stand to fight with you anymore.” She shakes her head and turns to grab her bag and water bottle.

She’s halfway to the door; Steve still sat on the sparring mat when he just can’t help himself.

“How’s Barton?”

Natasha doesn’t slow, not that he expected her to, but she smirks over her soldier as she walks out the door.

                                                                           

                                                                                                                              *

 

He can’t stop the bleeding and the extraction team aren't coming for another hour. She isn’t going to last another hour. He knows it and worst of all she knows it. They’re crouched in a drainage pipe in the world’s smelliest ditch and all he can think about is how she’s dying and it’s all his fault. He presses harder against the wound and uses his other hand to cradle her shoulders so she isn't lying in the mud and filth.

“You’re gunna be okay Natasha, just hold on.”

She laughs and it isn’t a good sound, it’s choked and gargled and it makes him want to cry.

“You’re a terrible liar Cap.”

“I can’t lie remember, part of the super patriotic superserum they gave me. I can’t lie and I can’t curse but I can call eagles down from the mountains to do my bidding.”

Natasha laughs again and winces for her trouble.

“Stop it. When did you get a sense of humour anyway? Did I miss a meeting?”

“Yeah was the same day as your “How to hide a Hawkeye” seminar so I think you missed it.”

She doesn’t laugh this time but her eyes soften a little. “You’re really not letting this go are you?”

He shakes his head. “Nope. So you better keep on breathing or I’m going to be mighty annoyed. Heck if you go and die on us how will we find him? Did you know there’s a pool going at work that you finally snapped and killed him. I bet that you just locked him away in some abandoned house or something. I don’t think you’d kill him. Maim him a little maybe but never…”

“Cap, shut up. Listen if I…If I don’t make it…give this to him,” she gestures to the tiny arrow necklace around her neck. “He’ll know what to do with it.”

He wants to tell her to stop being so stupid, she’ll be fine, she’s Black Widow and no one can kill Black Widow. He wants to tell her she’s his best friend and he can’t deal with having to watch another friend die, he isn’t strong enough. He wants to tell her she’s the best person he knows and he’s so thankful he got to know her.  He wants to tell her all these things but before he can say anything she goes limp in his arms, her eyes drifting closed.

“Natasha? Natasha! Wake up. That is an order, Agent. Wake up.” He shakes her as hard as he can without moving his hand off of her wound. “Natasha you need to wake up. Right now. Come on Nat, please don’t leave me. You can’t leave me here on my own. I’m incompetent, you tell me that all the time. You’ve already saved me once today; don’t let that be waste by leaving me to die alone in a drain.”

She doesn’t stir. He tries a new tactic.

“Natasha. What will people think if you die in my arms? Oh how romantic. Maybe they’ll write one of those romance novellas about it. Big masculine man like myself and you, a teeny-tiny little broad, bet we’d have a best seller. I’ll tell them that as you lay dying you declared your everlasting love for me. You’ll go down in history as the pretty red head that loved Captain America. Is that what you want Natasha?”

She opens her eyes then. It’s not much and she can’t really focus on him or anything but she’s awake and alive for now and he doesn’t think he’s been this relieved since they’d found Bucky in that room all those years ago.

“Oh thank fuck,” and he presses a kiss to her hair.

She mumbles something under her breath and he has to lean right down to make it out.

“I told Clint I could make you curse.”

He laughs a then, in relief and in thanks that they haven’t taken her away from him, not yet at least.

                                                       

                                                                                                                                        *

 

She finds him sat at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. He’s been here for hours and he knows she’s known where he was all along but he appreciates her attempt at privacy. She sits down but rather than looking at him, Nat watches the light ripple in the Reflecting Pool. They sit in silence for almost half an hour before he breaks.

“It was him Natasha. I’m sure it was him.” The face from the rooftop is burned into his brain. The man that killed Fury. He knows those eyes, he knew those eyes. He just doesn’t understand why they didn’t know him.

She doesn’t look away from the pool as she answers him and he knows Fury’s death is hitting her harder than she’s letting on.

“I don’t know what to say Cap. Maybe that guy used to be your friend, maybe it was Bucky, but I remember the stories you told me about him and Steve, that guy was a trained assassin, he wasn’t your friend.”

“It was him. I know it was him. If I’m wrong then I’m wrong but I know him Natasha, if there’s anything left of him in there I’ll find it.”  

“What if there isn’t though? What then? Are you prepared to do what needs to be done?”

She looks tired as she turns to him and she doesn’t say it but her eyes are pleading with him to let it go, to let her handle Fury’s killer the best way she knows how.

“I can’t let it go Natasha, not until I know,” he has to ask though. “If it was Clint, if he didn’t remember you, if he’d killed Fury, would you be able to put him down?”

Her eyes harden and he suddenly remembers what happened before New York, before he knew who she was and how she worked. He wants to backtrack and apologise for being insensitive but she holds up a hand and nods her head.

“If that’s what it took, if he couldn’t be brought back, then yes. I would put him down.”

He takes a risk.

“Even though you love him?”

She turns back to the pool and her answer when it comes is cold and more Black Widow than it is Natasha Romanov.

“Love is for children.”

“Do you really believe that?”

She doesn’t look at him but her face softens as she thinks it over. They watch the water together, the civilians walking by on their way to work, coffees and paper in hands. By the time she answers he’s almost forgotten he asked the question at all.

 

                                                                                                                                    *

 

They leave Sam at his place and head back to the car. A hell of a lot has happened in the past 24 hours and neither of them really knows how to feel about it. They’re tired and cut up and hurting emotionally as well as physically and they’re both really, really hungry.  They’re in the car heading towards the outskirts of DC when Natasha suddenly pulls over and turns to him, a deadly look in her eyes. For a moment he thinks maybe he was wrong and she’s Hydra and she’s going to finish him quickly when he least expects it. Then he remembers who he’s looking at and what she’s done and relaxes against the seat.

“I want you to know that you’re my friend and I trust you..”

“Thanks Natasha but…”

“Let me finish. You’re my friend and I trust you but if you make me regret what I’m about to do then I promise you nowhere you ever run to will be safe. If trusting you with this turns out to be a mistake then I will make you pay for my mistake a thousand times over. Got it?”

She looks ferocious and terrifying and every other combination of scary you could think of so he just nods his head and promises he can be trusted. She nods back and pulls the car back onto the road heading into the suburbs. They pass hundreds of houses that are the embodiment of the American dream, but very few people are actually on the streets. He’s about to ask Natasha what they’re doing when she pulls the car into the garage of a really nice house and tells him to get out of the car. He does as he’s told and follows her through a door into a kitchen. He looks around and stops short when he notices the guy making pancakes a few feet away.

“Agent Barton?!”

Clint spins and Steve takes some solace in the fact he managed to surprise one of the sneakiest guys in S.H.I.E.L.D.  Clint looks confused for about 2 seconds before he sees Natasha and grins. Pancake batter forgotten he steps forward and pulls Natasha into an embrace that she seems to sink in to. Steve looks away. This is private and he has no idea why Natasha brought him back with her except for the fact everything is kind of slotting in to place as he notices the drawings on the fridge and the plastic plates on the counter and the toy box in the corner.

“Holy shit you guys have a kid!”

Clint jumps back and Natasha just smirks as he grumbles and reaches into his pocket to pay her.

“Told you I could make him curse.”

“Yeah but no one said you could use our family to do it. That’s cheating.”

“No one said I couldn’t use whatever means necessary to do it.”

“You’re a cheat.”

“And you’re a douche.”

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, idiot.”

Then they’re kissing and Steve really doesn’t want to interrupt but he really needs to know if this is happening or if he’s been hit on the head or if this is possibly a Hydra trick in order to confuse him into surrender. If it is the last one, he thinks it might just work so he clears his throat and Natasha smirks a little at the blush he’s got going on.

“I’m really sorry to interrupt but Natasha, what is happening exactly?”

He might’ve got an answer if not for the squealing, fast moving object that chose that moment to throw itself passed Steve and into Natasha’s arms.

“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”

Natasha’s face lights up then in a way he’s never seen before. She lifts the little girl on to her hip and Steve can’t help but ogle at the likeness between them. The bright red hair, the button nose.  It’s both adorable and terrifying at the same time. He looks to Clint who just shrugs and pats the little girl on the head, earning a squeal of indignation. She squirms in Natasha’s arms before noticing Steve for the first time.

“Eh Hi?” Steve waves awkwardly at the toddler causing Clint to laugh loudly again.

“Jesus, Cap she’s a kid not a bomb. Pippa this is your Uncle Steve. Uncle Steve this is Pippa.”

Pippa eyes him like a miniature Black Widow and seemingly debates his worth before smiling at him and waving. Natasha can’t hide the smirk at the relief on Steve’s face. She takes pity on him though, kissing Pippa one more time before telling her to go get dressed and if she’s good Uncle Steve will play tea party later. The kid leaves and Steve can’t seem to grasp what’s happening anymore.

Natasha pulls away from Clint and sits down at the breakfast bar, indicating to Steve to do the same. He sits and Clint claps him on the shoulder as he places a cup of coffee in front of him.

“Ah Cap don’t worry about it. There’s nothing untoward going down. I’m assuming by the look on your face my wife didn’t explain anything to you at all. Did she kidnap you? Cause if she kidnapped you there’s probably some kind of union you can call.”

Natasha reaches across to punch him in the arm and he laughs as he kisses her forehead on the way back to making his pancakes. She turns to Steve and shakes her head in amusement before taking a sip of her coffee.

“This is kind of a lot to take in I guess.”

Steve just watches her.

“It’s okay Steve I haven’t been brainwashed. Although sometimes I think that’s the only way he got me. First things first, Clint and I are married and well you’ve met Pippa, she’s four. It wasn’t always this hard… before New York we had someone we could leave her with, someone we trusted to watch her when we were on missions.” She glances at Clint who’s gone still at the stove, eyes tight.

“Agent Coulson?” He asks but he already knows the answer. She nods.

“He loved her. But after New York, after everything that happened, we realised we couldn’t leave her parent less if something went wrong. So now we take it in turns going on missions and Clint works from home most of the time so someone can be with her.”

Steve nods again and looks into his coffee trying to find the right words.

“Why didn’t you tell me Natasha? I could’ve helped, got reassigned so you could spend more time with them. Hell you shouldn’t have been in that giant mess today. You’ve got too much to lose.”

Her face hardens as she takes a sip of coffee and he notices too late Clint stood behind her gesturing for him to stop. He waits for the onslaught but when it comes it’s not what he expected.

“I know what I’m doing Steve. Clint stays home with her and protects her here. I trust very few people but I trust him with our daughter, he’ll keep her safe whatever the cost... I protect her out there. I work with you and we make the world safe so I’m not so terrified to let her out into it. We’ve lost almost everything this week and it’s only going to get harder but I will never stop fighting for a world that is safer for my girl to be in. You’re part of that too now. I trust you, I trust you to be part of her life. So are you going to keep lecturing me on my duties or are you going to shut up and eat my husband’s amazing pancakes and play tea party with my kid and forget how fucked up things are for one lousy day?”

He thinks about it for all of five seconds before pulling one of the plastic plates in front of him and finding his place in a real family for the first time in years.


End file.
